Chapter 158

It wasn’t two minutes before Allegra’s phone vibrated in her pocket, with David calling back.

“I’m mad at you,” was the surly greeting he got as she stepped into the lobby at Two Liberty Place just ahead of Richie.

“Ah hell, Legs.  You know it was at least a little bit funny.”

“Tomorrow it may be funny.  Right now it’s just mean and you two morons ruined my day.”

“Come on, sweetheart, you can’t stay mad at me.  You know how much I love you.”

The elevator doors swept open, and Richie passively listened to her side of the conversation while planting himself in the doorway to hold the car open, allowing Allegra ample time to enter.  He pushed the button for their floor.

“If you loved me, you would apologize.”

Richie narrowed his eyes and guided a possessive arm around her waist.  Her petulant words were innocent enough, especially since he knew who she was talking to, but he wasn’t wild about her tossing those kinds of words around to another man.  Any other man.

“You’re mine,” he growled the reminder in her free ear, fingers twirling the diamond ring on her left hand.

She rolled her eyes at him and returned her focus to what David was saying on the other end of her iPhone.

“Fine,” the keyboardist reluctantly huffed.  “I’m sorry that I made you feel bad.  I’m not sorry for thinking it was funny, but maybe we carried it a little further than we should have.”

“Gee, your heartfelt remorse is touching,” she drawled with a fair dose of sarcasm.  “Did you want something else?”

“Yes, but I’m not telling you until you get over your pissy snit.”

“By my count, I should get over my ‘pissy snit’ in about five months,” she snapped, breezing past Richie into the condo and dumping her purse on the kitchen counter. 

“David, I know you’ve been around a pregnant woman at least twice in your life, as evidenced by your children.  So why do you not have any better sense than to poke at a hormonal woman who’s feeling protective of her little one?”

She sighed, her butt dropping onto a bar stool in front of the counter.  Richie watched her eyes mist over, no doubt as a result of those hormones, and noted the weariness in her now quiet voice. “Can’t you at least pretend to offer up a sincere apology?”

And then the phone was no longer in her hand.  Richie snatched it away, having heard enough.

 “Goddamit, Lemma, she’s just about to start crying and I’m getting pissed.  If you don’t apologize to her right fucking now, I’m gonna kick your ass the second my plane touches down in Winnipeg.”

The heat of Richie’s displeasure must’ve sizzled clearly over the line to Canada, because David immediately changed his tune.

“Jesus, crying?  I really am sorry,” he contritely expressed his regret.  “We didn’t mean to upset her.  I forgot how touchy they can be with a bun in the oven.”

“Don’t tell me, asshole.  Tell her.” 

Richie put the phone back to her ear, patiently waiting for her to latch onto it. 

She did so almost instantly, but didn’t utter a word, merely listening to whatever David was saying. 

Richie was way too wound up now.  He needed to find a productive way to expel his energy.  Scooping up their bags, he left Allegra to deal with Lemma however she saw fit and headed for the master bedroom.

Pushing through the door, he dropped the carry ons next to the dresser, his feet blindly leading him toward the bed tucked into the glass corner of the room.  He hadn’t been here since…  Well, since that really shitty day when he came home from Charlotte. 

The bag with her vibrator still lay in the middle of the bed, tipped on its side where he’d left it that night.

Seeing it there brought the memories rushing back and he rubbed at the center of his chest.  It was suddenly tight with the residue of his emotions from all those weeks ago.  Finding that note.  Thinking she’d left him.  Not knowing where she’d gone.

Fuck.  Stop it, dumbass.  She’s here now.

As though someone else was trying to make that same point, delicate arms slid around his waist and he could feel a soft cheek come to rest against his shoulder.

“We’ve never been together in this bed.”

He gave a silent shake of his head.  No, they hadn’t.  The night that would’ve happened…

“I’m sorry, sweetie.  More than you can possibly imagine.”  She didn’t release him, instead burrowing under his arm until she’d twirled around him like a Maypole, bringing them chest to chest.  Allegra went up on tip-toe to touch delicate lips to the cleft in his chin.  “Believe me, if I had another chance, I’d do things differently.”

Her eyes brimmed with sorrow and regret, removing any doubt as to the genuineness of her sentiment. 

And he didn’t want to doubt.  There was no reason to go back there.  Richie just wanted to move forward, and that meant making new memories.

“Help me forget,” he whispered dipping his mouth to drink from hers as he cupped her backside with a hint of desperation.  “I don’t want to remember this room without you in it.”

Her hands roamed his chest, face and neck and her mouth tasted every inch of his exposed skin.  Desperate to make things better, she began unbuttoning his shirt as she ate at his lips, sucking their fullness into her mouth, nipping on the soft flesh with tender love bites. 

His jacket melted away, quickly followed by the rest of their clothes. Greedy fingers clutched at her scalp, channeling through the sleek strands of hair until they were released from the elastic band that held them hostage.  Richie tasted, teased and taunted until he had backed her knees against the mattress.  A gentle nudge had her sprawled upon her back, gazing up at him with smoldering eyes. 

This.  This was the picture that should be rooted in his brain.  Not the stark, pristinely made bed he’d come to find back in April, littered only by those few scant items. 

No.  He needed to fill his mind with pictures of her occupying – owning – this bed.

With a sullen growl, he swept away the adult boutique bag, dismissing it out of hand. 

They may never have had sex in this bed, but they had plenty of phone sex while she was in this bed.  Richie wanted – no, needed – to know the sights he’d missed out on.

“Touch yourself,” he instructed softly, following his own direction by gliding down his abdomen with a slow touch.  “Like you did the times we talked on the phone.” 

Allegra’s face flushed at the vision he made as he loosely fisted his stirring erection.  Her knees dropped apart without conscious thought as he towered forebodingly above her.

“On the phone, you always told me what to do.”

His dark chuckle snapped her attention from below his waist to the eyes that were black with desire and…  something else she preferred not to acknowledge.  Guilt wouldn’t make it disappear, but she knew she had to find something that would. 

“You want to hear me say it, don’t you my sweet, dirty girl?”

Her stomach clenched with tingling anticipation.  God help her, she was a dirty girl.  He’d turned her into a wanton woman, and he was the only one who could slake the cravings he’d stirred.

“Please,” she breathed, trembling hands clutched the comforter expectantly, its softness caressing her palms as she waited.

“Is your pussy wet thinking about it?”

She nodded, once again mesmerized by the hard, masculine hand mindlessly tugging on the silk-sheathed hardness seated between his thighs.

“You like watching me jack off, baby?  You like knowing that your pretty, pink pussy gives me a raging hard-on?”

“God, yes.”

He spoke to the deep-seated passion that had lain dormant for so many years.  The passion that he’d lured out like a shy animal, feeding and nurturing it with tenderness and a firm hand.  The passion that burned for him alone, making her ache with its ferocity.

“Then show me.  Show me what you did while I was jacking off in all those different cities, missing you.”

Allegra chewed lightly on her lower lip, palms splayed on her thighs as she lightly bucked her hips.  Ghostly fingers trailed toward the dark thatch of curls that were tinged with the dampness of desire. 

Richie’s fist clamped hard around his cock, pausing when Allegra parted herself and dipped her fingers into the sweet, shimmery honey coating her slit.  One slim finger disappeared inside her, quickly joined by a second.

His testosterone spiked to a potent level and Richie couldn’t contain the moan of pleasure that crept from deep within his throat.  The beauty of this exquisitely aroused woman taking care of herself stole his breath away.

“Baby, I want you so much,” he rasped, the mattress dipping under his weight when he crawled between her splayed legs.  “I wanna get lost in you.”

She invited him in, spreading herself wide to offer up everything she had, and her heavy eyes locked on the engorged head of his cock as it disappeared inside her waiting wetness.

“Look at me.”

The fullness had become a familiar sensation, but locking eyes with him caused her vaginal walls to clench.  This wasn’t just sex.  It wasn’t about getting off.  It was about connecting – that special connection melding them into a single soul for a brief moment in time. 

She gasped, lids drifting shut as he bumped against her, completely submerged – a part of her.

“No.  Don’t close your eyes.  Look at me, baby.”

Obediently she cracked them open again, sweltering in the heat behind his gaze.  The intensity was overwhelming, yet he kept his pace leisurely as he slid from her warmth.  There was a brief pause, then he glided back in. 

Unhurried.  Steady.  Torturous.

He swooped low to capture her mouth in a searing kiss, hands planted on either side of her head.  Luscious lips and tender tongue savored her like a fine delicacy, consuming all of her with a thoroughness that melted her senses. 

She needed more.

“Richie…”

“Hold on, sweet thing.  The ride’s about to get a little bumpy.”  That was her only warning before their hips impacted with the force of his thrust. 

“Ohhhh.”  Allegra couldn’t help herself, gripping at his shoulders to keep from sliding all the way up the bed.  “Oh.  That’s it.  So good…”

He grunted in her ear, rearing back and impaling her with his rigidness, over and over, sweat dripping from his brow.  Her muscles began to ripple and she clamped around him like a heated vice, her heels digging into his buttocks to bring him closer.

“Oh.  Oh.  Ohhhh!”

“Look at me,” he demanded, relentlessly pounding into her, chasing fervently after his own slice of heaven.  “Tell me… you’ll never leave me again.  Tell me!”

“Never,” she gasped, heart pounding and breaking in two all at the same time. 

“Now… look me in the eye… and come… with me.”  Powerful thrusts swept them both up in a whirlwind of intense physical pleasure, while their eyes stayed drawn together like magnets.

She’d had a lot of intense, amazing orgasms at his hand, but Allegra had no idea it could be this way.

All the defenses were stripped from them, leaving each utterly exposed to the other.  There was nothing but him, her and their naked emotions as the world around them splintered apart in a torrent of light.